18 February 2012

This will be the first season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since 2006 that the defending champion is not named Jimmie Johnson. One of the greatest runs in the history of sports, Johnson's five consecutive titles, ended last season with Tony Stewart claiming the Chase, becoming the first owner-driver to do so since the late Alan Kulwicki did it in 1992. Following one of the wilder Silly Seasons in recent memory with a lot of driver movement, how will the 2012 Spring Cup Series shake out? Here's the B-FLO 360 2012 Sprint Cup season preview.

17 February 2012

For the first time since Martin Truex, Jr. went back-to-back in 2004-2005, there was a champion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series that was not competing full-time in the Sprint Cup Series and that was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Thanks to the new rules saying that drivers can only compile points in one series, it allowed the Nationwide-only drivers to own the spotlight. In fact, this season as of right now there will be no Sprint Cup regulars driving full-time in the Nationwide Series. So how do I see the season going down? Here's the B-FLO 360 2012 Nationwide Series season preview.

Mike Ribeiro won the game last night for the Dallas Stars with a slapper on overtime against the Calgary Flames and Stars color commentator, the great Daryl "Razor" Reaugh, described the goal in a very interesting way. He started off by calling it "six shades of sexy" and took it even further after that. Let's go to the videotape.

Well it was one eventful term in New York for A.J. Burnett, as it now comes to a close as the Yankees traded the righty to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for a couple of prospects, outfielder Exicardo Cayones and relief pitcher Diego Moreno, as well as for Pittsburgh absorbing $13 million from the $33 million remaining on his contract. I will break down this trade after the jump.

It was another exciting season in the Camping World Truck Series in 2011 with a youngster, Austin Dillon, claiming the championship, the first youngin to claim the title since Travis Kvapil way back in 2003 in what has been a series dominated by the cagey veterans. But Dillon will not be back to defend his title as he is off to compete in the Nationwide Series. So will take the crown in 2012? Here's the B-FLO 360 2012 Camping World Truck Series season preview.

Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, one of the most beloved members of the Montreal Expos and New York Mets, has died today at the age of 57. He had been diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma last May.

Arguably the most exciting part of the NBA All-Star Weekend has got to be the Slam Dunk Contest. And thus there is always a lot of thought about who should participate. The NBA announced those contestants this morning and let's take a look at them plus some highlights of each.

15 February 2012

Josh Hamilton gave his first interview today after his relapse from earlier this month today to GBTV, Glenn Beck's web channel featuring his show after he left FOX News Channel. Now while it may seem like an odd choice for Hamilton, Beck himself is a recovered alcoholic and drug addict himself and so he understands to some extent what Hamilton has gone through in his relapses in his recovery in his baseball career. And the interview was given to his spiritual adviser, Pastor James Robinson. You have to give Hamilton credit for being completely open about his problems and how he has to recover from them. Let's go to the videotape.

The clear top prize of anyone who may or may not be on the trading block in the NHL is Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash. The 27-year old right winger is apparently on the market according to RDS (page is in French) and anytime a star that is about to enter his prime is on the market, there will be a huge interest. Whether or not Nash will be traded is not certain but you have to ponder if Nash is tired of all the losing, having said that "this has definitely been the toughest season of my career." So where could he potentially be traded to?

John Shurna, Drew Crawford and the Northwestern Wildcats are looking this season to finally end their schools' March Madness drought this season. They sit at 15-9 overall with a 5-7 record in the Big Ten and while bracketologists such as Andy Glockner are not so confident right now, hope is still alive. So will they get there?

Kudos to SportsGrid for finding this because this is just probably the worst turnover ever. Not sure what Corey Maggette is thinking here, or why he is taking the ball up anyways, but this just embarrasing. I feel bad for Bobcats fans, if there are any left. Let's go to the videotape.

It has seemed a foregone conclusion from the moment that Andrew Luck decided to return to Stanford last year that he would be the clear top overall pick for whoever has that selection, unless they already had a quarterback in place obviously. And so with the Colts all but guaranteed to cut ties with Peyton Manning, it would make sense for them to take Luck, who has been said to be the top quarterback prospect since John Elway, even better than Manning when he came out. But could there be a chance that Robert Griffin III enters the conversation for the Colts?

Check out Nicolas Batum, who had a fantastic game last night against the Wizards with 33 points, power it down hard against not just Trevor Booker but also JaVale McGee in what is surely a contender for dunk of the year. Let's go to the videotape.

The big announcing news today is that ESPN has taken Ron Jaworski out of the Monday Night Football booth, as broken by the great John Ourand of Sports Business Daily. Very surprising news out of the Bristol consortium. ESPN will now stick with a two-man booth, their first while covering Monday Night Football and first on their lead NFL announcing crew since they made the insufferable crew of Mike Patrick and Joe Theismann even worse by adding Paul Maguire to the mix, with Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden remaining. Jaworski will now move to an already packed studio set for Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown. Here's my take.

14 February 2012

The NFL Scouting Combine starts in Indianapolis in a week. I personally think scouts will put too much emphasis on combine results but regardless, it's a really big deal as the draft is two months away. Here is my 2012 mock draft, pre-combine edition.

The recent conquests of Jeremy Lin has taken the NBA by storm. Hell, he's taking the world by storm as seemingly everyone knows who this guy is now (don't you love playing in New York?) And he's not just any unknown player who explodes out of nowhere with a strong debut once he gets serious minutes because not just any unknown player with a surprising breakout gets featured on the Colbert Report. Yes, Stephen Colbert has "Linsanity." Let's go to the videotape.

Vince Carter may be thirty-five years old (he's 35?!) and while he is a shell of what he once was back in his prime, he still has some hops and he showed it with some Vintage Vinsanity with the reverse dunk after the baseline tightrope. Let's go to the videotape.

13 February 2012

Nikola Pekovic is having himself a nice season for the Timberwolves as he has doubled points per game and rebounds per game over his rookie season a year ago. And apparently he is a world traveler, as per the Timberwolves' trivia segment "Where in the world is Nikola Pekovic?" This is fantastic stuff, let's go to the videotape.

Wow, now is that hot or what. Or as Pepper Brooks would say, some good, clean, family fun. It turns out that the cover of the 2012 SI Swimsuit Issue, one of the greatest things ever created, got leaked by the fine folks at TMZ and it is the gorgeous Kate Upton. Boom.

Brett McMurphy of CBS Sports has reported that Conference USA and the Mountain West conference has decided to dissolve their respective conferences and create their own as yet to be titled conference. The new conference will start with the 2013-14 academic year while both conferences would remain as is for the 2012-13 academic year.

After a disappointing 2010 season in which he was traded once and put on waivers once and spent the season as a part of three teams, Randy Moss retired last August. Some folks felt that he still had something left in the tank and thus it came as a surprise to some that he was retiring at the age of 34. But now it appears that Moss is attempting to come back to the NFL as he announced in a live broadcast on UStream. But will any team take the bait?

12 February 2012

So Giants wideouts Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham were presenting an award at the Grammy's, don't ask my why as I never watch the Grammy's, along with the hot actress from NCIS when he was implored to do his now famous salsa touchdown dance. And so he did. Let's go to the videotape.

Now while you can blame the reporter for standing in the driveway while taping her piece but to be fair to her, why the hell was Sandusky's wife gunning it up her driveway? Crazy stuff.
(H/T Dr. Saturday)

As a tribute to the late Whitney Houston, here is her legendary rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner before Super Bowl XXV. Set amindst the continuing conflict in the Persian Gulf, it may be the most memorable rendition in Super Bowl history. Lip synced or not, pure greatness. Let's go to the videotape.

The Minnesota Timberwolves came up just short against the New York Knicks on Saturday night but it was Ricky Rubio who stole the show with a dazzling pass to Nikola Pekovic, who had a very strong double-double performance, through the legs of Tyson Chandler. Let's go to the videotape.